One of the things that we are promised in our life, in our faith, is this.  It’s not always easy. There are going to be tough times. There are going to be times of trial and tears and hurt.  There are going to be real times of challenge.

Listen to what it says in 1 Peter 5: 8-10:

8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. 10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.

Peter reminds us that the Devil is always seeking to attack, always seeking to destroy.  Jesus tells us in John 10:10, that the thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy.

There is evil in the world. There is.  I know it’s old-fashioned and antiquated in the world we live in, but there is evil.  (I’ll even go more old school, I believe in an actual fallen angel named Lucifer who is the devil.  Jesus believed in him, taught about him, and was tempted by him).  How else do we explain not only the terrible acts of violence and destruction that happen each day in our world?  How else do we explain the darkness that lays within each us that shows itself in our temptations and our weakness?

The world we live in has lost its ability to speak of evil.  We speak of it in clinical terms, we speak of it in terms of nurture, education, socio-economic status.  And while these clinical terms partially describe evil in the world, they do not explain that evil that is found in every culture, every class, every race, every part of human existence.

There is evil in the world.

And we are told today to resist it, and it will flee.  We are told that we are not the only ones that suffer.  And we are told that God will come to our rescue.

Today, don’t be discouraged by evil in the world.  Pray for yourself, and for all that suffer under evil.  And know that God will be our deliverer.

Hope.  Resist.  Pray.  Trust.

Yes, there is evil.  But God is stronger.  And will win in the end.  Never forget that.

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